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Churra
General information Churra is a mostly isolating language with some fusional elements, and a heavy dependence on word order to illustrate many grammatical concepts, including tense. It has an exceptionally large consonant inventory, with many fricatives, but very few vowels. It is spoken in a small coastal region of the planet Ysla, by a currently-unnamed species of alien "crab-taurs" with a tri-sexual reproductive system. Phonology Consonants Palatalization and Labialization Any consonant can be modified from C to Cʲ or Cʷ (with the exception that /w/ cannot be labialized, and /y/ cannot be palatalized, for obvious reasons; however either can undergo the opposite process). These are phonemic distinctions, effectively tripling Churra's consonant inventory. This is written in the romanized orthography as Ce and Co. Vowels Alphabet Churra is written in ideographs and sometimes in a syllabry. Both are under development. The romanized alphabet used is included in the phonemic inventories chart. Note that in some instances long sounds may simply be written doubled (e.g. ĥ = hh, í = ii). Phonotactics Stress structure: third-to-last when available Permitted syllables: *CV, #V, VC# *CF:, #F:, F:C *F:V, VF:, F:C, CF: *(F: = Long fricative) Regular sound changes */hʷ/ = ɸ */l/ = l /_# */l/ = ɾ /elsewhere Conditioned sound changes (IPA) *i > e /j_ , Cʲ_ *i: > eɪ /j_ , Cʲ_ *u > o /w_ , Cʷ_ *u: > oʊ/w_ , Cʷ_ *u, u: > ʉ, ʉ: /palatal_ *a, a: > ɑ, ɑ: /velar_ , uvular_ *C > C +voice / V_V *C > C -voice / _# *ð> θ /F:_ *h > x /_i Grammar Pronouns These pronouns are used as the verbal arguments. Despite the fact that all other relevant case-marking elements of Churra make a three-way distinction for Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object, the pronouns only have Subj and Obj forms. Pronoun order is relied on to convey case: the order is IO-S-DO. Other aspects of Churric nominal declension that the pronouns do not exhibit include gender (animacy) or the five-tier grammatical number. However, they can be inflected for these differences in much the same way as other nouns are when it is important. The Verb Verbs must show transitivity and tense, and can have modal, aspectual, and further valency information added by means of particles. Transitivity, Valency & Voicing Each verb has an inherent transitivity feature, and come in series of related verbs to allow for different transitive forms. There are five different types of verb; transitive, intransitive, ditransitive, 'dative,' and 'passive.' The 'endings' are often violated by exceptions. The transitivity feature was once an inflection on the verb, but for most verbs it has become fossilized and non-decompositional. Inherent transitivity allows third-person-singular pronouns to be optional. If the verb is IT and has no visible subject, that subject is a third person; if the verb is DT with no pronouns attached, then all three persons are third persons. Other distinctions and combinations of persons may be made with valency-modifying prefixes (also known as voice markers): *''sa-'' indicates passivization of the subject pronoun on TR or DT verbs. **''sataras ilu'' **kill.TR 1SG.OBJ **'he is killed by me' *''fe(a)-'' indicates causation on DT verbs; with fe-'', the IO causes the S to act on the DO. **''featarĥ ilu cu **kill.DT 1SG.OBJ 2SG.SUBJ **'he made you kill me' *''ju-'' is the counterpart to fe-'': the DO causes S to act on IO. **''jubalir ilu cu **speak.DT 1SG.OBJ 2SG.SUBJ **'he made me speak to you' *''ci-'' indicates 'dipassive,' or a verb with both a DO and IO. **''cigufiz ki muzaqoi i mŝa '' **DP.pull.PA the.IO ground the.DO flower **'the flower was pulled from the ground' Tense Churra has a two-tense system, future and non-future (which will be referred to as 'past' at times for sake of simplicity, despite inaccuracy). There is no morpheme, auxiliary verb, or verb form that indicates tense; instead this is acheived through word order. In future-tense phrases, the arguments will appear before the verb; in the non-future, the arguments appear after the verb. This is true regardless of the argument form (pronoun vs noun vs imbedded clause). Since the third-person pronouns are optional, many phrases will have no visible arguments or other methods of indicating tense-aspect or temporal information. In this case it is generally assumed that the phrase is in non-future tense, except in certain narrative conditions (e.g. following a future-tense phrase). *''moga (run.IT) 'he runs/ran' *''vu moga ''(3SG.SUBJ) 'he will run' While the non-future corresponds to English past and/or present for the most part, there are some instances where a phrase that would be present in English is future in Churra. This is especially true of phrases with an irrealis mood, or when a verb has consequences that may extend into the future. Aspect Another important set of distinctions of the Churric verb are its aspects. These always appear directly before the verb (except for voice markers). The first six aspects must, in a way, agree with the phrasal tense. Adding ''su ''to a future phrase, for instance, would cause an ungrammatical and infelicitous utterance. The remote-perfect/simple aspect, frequently shortened to 'remote,' indicates that an event occured a long time in the past or will occur far in the future. This is therefore one of the few ways to know for sure that a non-future phrase is past, and not present. It has been partially co-opted to merely indicate past tense for this reason. The anterior-progressive is generally just called 'anterior.' Gnomic aspect is used to state that an event (or state) is always true, or that a statement is a general (usually well-known) truth, e.g. ''sa juma'' tíla birds fly.' It is sometimes used as a means of trying to make a sentence seem more truthful and honest.'' The stative is used to describe a situation which is ongoing but unchanging. The semantic difference between the future and non-future of the stative and gnomic is minor at best, which is probably why there is only one form for each. *''wira lu 'I run/ran' *''su wira lu '''I ran a long time ago' **li wira lu 'I ran a long time from now' *''lu li wira '''I will run a long time from now' *''bu wira lu '''I am/was running' *''lu mi wira '''I will be running' *''ku wira lu '''I had been running' *''lu xi wira '''I will have been running' *''sa wira lu '''It is true that I run' *''lu sa wira '''It is true that I will run' *''na wira lu '''I (have) always run' *''lu na wira '''I will always run' Aspects are only allowed to stack if one has future/non-future distinction and the other does not; in this case, the gnomic or stative particle appears before the other. In this method the stative and progressive may be combined to create the pluperfect. *''sa bu sirif zu lu *ST PR.P wait.DA 2SG.OBJ 1SG.SUBJ *'I have been waiting for you' Mood Most modal sentences, especially ones that use irrealis moods, that would take the present in English are in future tense in Churra. Determiners & Case There are three types of determiners in Churra: articles, demonstratives, and possessive pronouns. Articles communicate case and definiteness, while demonstratives encode spacial relation to the speaker or subject. It is possible to use both partitive and/or tool articles and demonstratives together. Possessive pronouns were discussed in the 'pronoun' section at the beginning. Articles The 'proper noun' articles are only required when the sentence's structure leaves case ambiguous. *''a mŝa 'the flower (sj)' *''at alois '''the sun (sj)' *''mŝa '''a flower (sj)' *''lat ara '''some still water (sj)' *''i alois '''the sun (oj)' *''ki alois '''to/at/etc the sun' *''tin alois '''with the sun' * *''vujaw utuga icibirilĥ''k ma Tum'' *laugh.DA monkey PAUC-trick-PSS.IO the.SUBJ Tom *'Tom laughed at the monkey's tricks' Demonstratives There are 36 demonstratives in Churra, which encode three axes of information: case, proximity, and vertical direction. What is immediately apparently is that there is a sound-meaning correspondence between the vowels and the height distinctions (above, equal/eye-level, below). This sound symbolism is present in other parts of the language as well. The four levels of proximity are proximal, medial, distal, and surrounding, which correspond roughly to English this X, that X, yonder X (cf. Sp. aquell@), and the surrounding X. *''lu nisit mssa ''''qapul'' *1SG.SUBJ DEM flower want.TR *'I want that flower up there' * *''bu wudiwi tal ara lu'' *PR.NF swim.DA DEM still.water 1SG.SUBJ *'I am swimming in still water' Possessive Case There are two ways to form the possessive in Churra - by using a possessive pronoun (like English my, your, her) or by using the possessive declension. (When using possessive pronouns, but the pronoun and the case marker must be used.) This is the only form of declined case in Churra. Unlike in English, these endings are not applied to the possessor (Mary's 'kitten) but to the possessed. The possessor is left without any article. *''Mali naním '''Mary's kitten (sj)' * *''wazat a kavoa Mali naniŝ''d'' *chase.TR the.SUBJ dog Mary kitten-PSS.DO *'the dog chased Mary's kitten' *''wazat a kavoa vim naniŝd '''the dog chased her kitten' Adpositions These fall under the category of determiners in Churra since they may replace articles and demonstratives in the phrase, standing in place of case or directional marking. They are generally found before the noun they modify. The Noun The noun in Churra has little morphology. However, it does show number, and something akin to animacy. Number Churra has a five-way number distinction. Animacy/ Word Class There are 19 common Churric noun endings. These are fossilized remnants from a once-productive animacy system, with five major classes of animacy; this was once decompositionable, but it is no more. While the animacy of the noun itself is no longer particularly important grammatically in Churra, there is a correspondence between semi-productive adjective animacy and the nominal form. Note that adjectives must agree with the ''animacy ''of their noun, and not the specific noun class. The specific classes are now completely defunct. Animacy distinctions might not be completely intuitive to English speakers; for instance both ''ara '''still water' 'and' ''fŝoa 'turbulent water' have fluid animacy, while ''narag 'the substance of water' is inanimate. Modifiers Churric adjectives are fairly simple, agreeing with their noun's animacy and having no other morphology. The adverbs are slightly more complex, dividing into temporal adverbs (which must agree with tense) and non-temporal adverbs, which behave identically to adjectives. Adjectives and Non-Temporal adverbs These two word classes are only differentiated by their distribution; they are therefore considered the same word class in Churra, and will be referred to as adjectives henceforth for the sake of simplicity. Churric adjectives follow the noun or verb they modify, and must agree with what they modify, on a six-tier system: verb (adverbs), and the five animacy sets. Therefore any one English adjective has up to six corresponding words in Churra. *''sujira 'clear (fl)' ; e.g. ''jiqoris sujira 'cloudless sky' *''sujiqoi '''clear (in)' ; e.g. ''leit sujiqoi'' 'cloudless day' *''sujir '''clearly/safely' ;'' e.g. '''ixa sujir lu'' 'I slept soundly' There are a few exceptions to the N-A order. For one, when a N+A construct is a compound (considered one noun), the order is reversed: *''kamút hanut 'large rock' *''hanut kamút '''boulder' The other exception is colour adjectives, which always preceed their noun, and which have only one form, regardless of animacy. *''zumal kamút '''blue rock' *''kamút zumal Temporal adverbs Temporal adverbs are inflected as either future or non-future and must also take specific places in the phrase depending on their agreement. In this way they can be considered somewhat similar to aspect or tense markers, since they are time-anchoring agents. The root forms of all temporal adverbs must begin with a vowel to allow for this process. Some temporal adverbs may also function as adjectives (including non-temporal adverbs) but in this case they usually convey spatial information. *''yimín '''soon' *''teimín '''just now/ recently' *''imín '''near' Vocabulary Example text Category:Languages